Friday Foto Friends

Only in Tennessee can you go from -6° on a Sunday morning after having anywhere from 3"-5" of snow across the county to waking up 5 days later on a Friday and have it a nice balmy 60° at 7:00 in the morning.

Sunday it looked like this....

By Thursday we had some pretty clouds hanging low after a morning rain and it was inching it's way up to the 60's.

As I was leaving for work yesterday at 8:30, I saw this in the sky. What a huge difference from Sunday.

What a wild weather week. According to WBIR weather, we are going to have another spring-like day in East Tennessee with spotty showers. Have a great Friday and be sure to visit Friday Foto Friends.

A fond memory....

 In 1897 the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Employee Hospital was formed in Huntington, WV. It was built so railroad employees could receive pre-paid hospital care that was covered by all railroad employees paying monthly fees.The system worked well for decades but by the 1960s it faced two problems: First, the increasing availability of medical care negated the need for C&O employees to travel so far for hospitalization. Second, the end of rail passenger service meant C&O employees no longer could use free passes to travel to the hospitals in Huntington or Clifton Forge. Reluctantly, the association was forced to close its hospitals.

In 1971, the old building was put to new use as Doctors' Memorial Hospital, a community hospital named in honor of three Huntington doctors - H.D. "Pete" Proctor, Ray R. Hagley and Joseph E. Chambers - who were killed in the 1970 Marshall University plane crash.

In 1974, a private non-profit bought Doctors' Memorial so the building could be used by MU's then-new medical school. When new facilities were constructed at the VA Medical Center and Cabell Huntington Hospital, the med school moved out. In 2001, the vacant building was demolished so the site could be used for student parking.

Now you might wonder why this piece of history is important to me? Because when my cousin, Patty, and I were around 15 or 16 I became Candy Stripers for the Doctor's Memorial Hospital. I have such wonderful memories of those days. I think we went there on Saturday's if I remember correctly. We took the snack cart around to all the floors and all the rooms to see if anyone needed any snacks. We also delivered mail and flowers to individual rooms. We had such an amazing time there and felt such compassion for all the patients. Having loved doing that, I've often missed those days and wonder why I never looked to the medical field for a career? Who knows. I just know that those were some wonderful memories from my youth. And I remember I loved my candy striper uniform with those big pockets. 

Over the hump day....

It's hard to think of this as over the hump when I have only had to work one day this week. But that is changing as we open up for the new season at Dixie on Friday. We celebrated last night with an end of the year banquet and party at the Holiday Inn. Lots of great times with good friends. 

I even won one of the door prizes. I was so excited. When they announced this was the next prize, I leaned over and said "I need that." and next thing I knew, they called out my number. I was so excited. I hardly ever win anything.

On my way home, I stopped at Walmart to get some new yarn. I want to start on my Easter projects. 

I am going to make an Easter basket and the sides of the basket will be these eggs stitched together. I made one years ago and gave it away, but it was so adorable. And you can do one egg in about 30 minutes so they don't take long. I think it took 3 or 4 eggs per side. I have to look up the dimensions again.

I have some sewing projects I want to start today. So I gathered my materials, pins and scissors. I uncovered the sewing machine. And I froze. I was actually intimidated by it because I haven't sewn in so many years. I'm just making a little straight stitch pillow. That's it. And I just froze. I wasn't even sure I remembered how to thread a sewing machine.

So I did what any smart Suzy Homemaker would do in my position.....I googled it.

You already know from my failure to crochet that I don't do You Tube videos. Watching it does me know good. I have to READ about it to learn anything. So I saved it in PDF and I'm ready to get started. 

I'm going to make some homemade vegetable soup after while for supper. I love veggie soup with peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwiches. I eat very weird. If you think that's weird, wait till I tell you that I don't eat the veggies. I just eat the broth with crackers in it like you would tomato soup. But I love the broth. But the veggies have to be in it so it gets the right flavor. Told you....WEIRD.

It's a beautiful day today so I have the front door open enjoying some sunlight before cold weather hits again. 

Hope you enjoy your day.

A little of this, a little of that...

Those of you who read my blog know what I do when I wake up at 5:00 and can't sleep. I pin on Pinterest. So you know what that means.... NEW IDEAS!

My mind was jumping everywhere and I would find something that would trigger a link to something else and then something else and well before you know it, I have saved some great things. Starting with these Hazel Atlas vintage items. I love my Pyrex but would love to incorporate some of the Hazel Atlas stuff in with it. 

I want to do something different with my porches this year. I love the old fashioned metal furniture if I could find some at a good price.

This would be my dream porch because mine is small and I just need two chairs and a small table for the front porch.

I love tins. Especially ones in these vintage colors. I want to start looking for some to store smaller craft items such as one for glue sticks, one for crochet hooks, one for needles, etc.

These style are beautiful as well. The colors would go great in my craft room.

I saw this wall of tins and just had to share. The tins are beautiful but that is over kill on the wall.

If I was rich and owned a beach house, I would definitely have to have this turtle gate. I fell in love with this.

I think it was more like 6 years, now but this popped up on my Facebook today. It was a cat Ms. Debbie at Breathing In Grace made for me. I loved Ms. Kitty but she got ruined in a move and I couldn't get her clean. I may have to try my hand at making one now that I have a sewing machine. 

Made this little wreath several years ago. Since it was paper, it didn't store well. Need to make me another one.

 Well, that's all for today. See everyone tomorrow. Same time, same place.

Weekend wrap up

It has been a busy week to say the least. I have had 7 days off and have to go back today. But then Tuesday & Wednesday will be my day off so I'm not going to complain about working Monday. Our Christmas was taken down at work this week while we were during dark days so it's back to the main Dixie show starting Jan 13th and I can see my buffalo again.

Over the weekend, I worked really hard on getting my craft room organized. Starting with the closet. I put on my bags/totes and purses on the closet rack. Most of them are hung up using the round curtain hooks, but when I used all those, I had to go to hangers. But I like them a lot better on the shower curtain hooks.

Each one of my containers is labeled using blackboard duct tape and chalk. I am addicted to the tape. It actually has a peel off back so you can cut to size, peel and stick.  

As you can see, I've already started a container for my annual yard sale this year because I kept finding things I kept in the move that I decided I wish I hadn't kept.

I redid the 3 piece book shelf unit. It's not completely how I want it yet, but I did it using containers I already have so I'm not going to replace them. I actually like the pink with the black and white.

The top shelf on this one needs fixed up a little more.

The middle unit has another shelf I can put in it, but I have to buy a replacement clip to hold it in place. We had taken it out when we had a TV in this unit and I can only find 3 of the 4 clips to hold the shelf in.

I moved my teapots and tea sets all over the house and some of them stayed in here on top of the book shelves. I love my book shelves. I have had them about 24 years now and they have held up very well.

I was so happy to have everything done and my desk moved in front of the window. It was nice sitting at my desk and watching the snow fall whenever I did anything on the computer. The lace curtains and the snow outside the window makes it look like my camera went crazy on the wall behind the desk.

My next day off, I'm firing up the sewing machine and learning how to use it. It's been awhile and this one is fancier than any I ever had. My sister gave it to me and I haven't been brave enough to try it out yet.

I still need to clean out the drawers in the little chest. They have a hodge podge of just about anything that I didn't know where else to put it. It's long over due for a good cleaning and tossing.

At the end of it all, I made myself a little pin cushion for the sewing area.

It has been a fantastic 7 days. If this was anything to go by, 2017 is going to be an awesome year.

Jesus Wept

A re-post from one I wrote on January 2, 2011. I thought it was worth repeating.

Jesus wept - John 11:35

Two powerful words with a profound meaning. Jesus was sent for when Lazarus died. Everyone was mourning his death. Many bible scholars have studied the various meanings of this verse. On the surface, it appears Jesus was weeping for the loss of a dear friend. Other views believe He was weeping for other reasons. Jesus already knew that when Lazarus died, He would raise him from the dead. 

He had spent considerable time with these people. They knew of His many miracles; they witnessed his greatness. Yet they still did not have faith that He could help Lazarus since he had already passed away. Many believe that is why He wept. Not for Lazarus, but for the fact that the very people who were closest to Him still didn't get it. 

Jesus saves. It's that simple. He performs miracle after miracle in our lives. Yet, how many times do we try to do things ourselves because we do not have enough faith to ask for His help. 

If we look back in our lives, how many times have we suffered in silence simply because we did not have a strong enough belief that Jesus can still perform miracles today or felt that we were undeserving of His goodness? How many times have we sat in the stillness of the midnight with our hearts and minds heavy laden? How many times have we struggled in deep despair needlessly? All we had to do was call upon the name of Jesus.

If someone were to write a book about what we have gone through in our lifetime, would there be any moments when our loving Saviour was looking down upon us that someone would simply have to write "Jesus wept."

Do not keep your troubles from Him. He already knows what you are going through. He will carry the load for you if you just ask him to. Take your burdens to the foot of the cross and leave them their. He wants to help if we only let Him. Please don't be the reason that Jesus wept.

Saturday Morning

We got our snow we wanted. It's not a whole lot, but it's beautiful. Other parts of the county got more than we did in Kodak. But I am so happy to be snowed in on a day I already had off. View from my back door. 

View from my front door. Neighbor was able to get out but he spun and sputtered all morning trying to get back in.

Going to be hanging out in my p.j.'s and fuzzy socks all day.

I did make a quick run into town yesterday to pick up somethings. I am going to a end-of-year party for work next week and needed some jewelry to go with my black sweater that has some sparkle to it. I wanted a long chain with a sparkly/fake diamond look. I love costume jewelry because I buy it cheap and don't feel guilty if I only wear it every so often. I hate spending a lot of money on jewelry. I have some hoop earrings with rhinestones in them so I found this necklace and bracelet, which is exactly what I was look for. Less than $10 for the whole set. 

Knowing I may be snowbound a day or two and knowing I was almost done organizing my craft room and could actually get some crafting done, I picked up a few things. Stay tuned for the finished product.

What caused me to make the trek into town was the fact my new phone was in. So I went and picked it up and got it all programmed. I am in love with it. It has a great camera, which was one thing I wanted in a new phone. It has a lot of features my old phone doesn't have and I made a really good choice. My daughter and I had Motorola's before and we absolutely loved them. So I went back to that instead of Samsung.

Well, I hope to get a lot accomplished today. Have a great day!